A Shadow Cast Upon Snow
by FyerFli
Summary: Daniel has always been the adventurous type of guy, and with everything going wrong things can only get better. It all began on that fateful day at the peak of Mt. Glacier. How will Daniel's life as a Pokemon Ranger continue from here?
1. Frostbite

A/N: Well, here it is, the first chapter of my first ever fanfic. I hope you enjoy, but just remember; it may not be one of the greatest stories since I'm sort of new to writing.

**This story is based off the Pokemon series; it is about a Pokemon Ranger named Daniel and his companions.**

**Also, keep in mind that this story is rated M for some strong language and a few implied adult themes.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. I do however own this story.

Daniel's POV:

As I climbed a steep incline atop Mt. Glacier, I began to think that accepting this mission was a bad idea. Weather reports earlier showed that there was a blizzard coming in and now, because of my lust to save Pokemon, I was right in its path.

The strong, icy wind felt like cold steel piercing my skin as it hit me and the harsh, cold snow not only slowed me down, but left me freezing as I made my journey to the top of the tall mountain. At high altitudes like this, the temperatures dropped greatly and there was an increasing risk of getting Hypothermia, especially on nights as cold as tonight. It was so cold that not even the Pokemon indigenous to the area, who were used to the cold climates were outside.

I needed to find shelter soon or I would freeze to death. A cottage, a cave, anything would do, but unfortunately there was nothing in sight. My only option now was to continue climbing and hope that there was cover farther up the mountain, so I continued the treacherous hike up to the peak.

As I climbed, the sharp rocks, which were the only things to hang on to, tore apart my skin leaving scratches and cuts across my hands and legs. The jagged ridges of the cliff ripped through my gloves and pants as the scrapes and wounds released blood, staining my clothes with red.

I had Glaceon, my one and only Pokemon with me but decided to leave her in her Pokeball since I was in no need of assistance and did not want to expose her to the violent, cold weather. Plus, I also believed that she had already gone through enough…especially when I first met her.

_~Flashback~_

It was about eight months ago; I was on a mission to retrieve an Aron that had been separated from its owner. The Aron had last been seen in a forest near the base of Mt. Glacier (Where I am now) and as I treaded through the forest, I took note of my surroundings and noticed how alluring it was. The trees were covered in snow that seemed completely solid, almost like ice, giving it a crystalline look. The birds were singing, regardless of how cold it was, but other than that the forest was quiet and peaceful. I don't think I'd ever seen anything more beautiful in my life.

I am sorry to say however, that the beauty that a saw in the forest at that moment soon disappeared. As I walked through the forest, I eventually heard a faint sound. I ignored it at first thinking that it was nothing, but as I continued through the forest the sounds became louder. I soon figured out that the sounds were both cries of distress and groans of both pleasure and lust. This made me fear the worst and I quickly ran in the direction of these sounds, avoiding trees and dodging large rocks and shrubs as I made my way there. At one point I ran strait through a bush covered with thorns; quite a few of them stuck me and I got pretty scratched up (Especially around my waist) but I continued running and was intent on getting to where I was going. I even tripped on a stone, which gave me a deep gash across my leg, but I got right back up and ran faster than before.

After running for a few minutes and suffering a few minor injuries I arrived at my destination, which was a clearing in the woods with a small frozen lake at the center. The first thing I saw when I walked forward was a Glaceon, lying down on her stomach by a large tree. At first glance, I noticed that she was cut up in quite a few places including her face, left hind-leg and thigh. As I approached her, I heard that she was silently crying to herself. I was going to try and comfort her but as I got closer I developed a look of disgust on my face, as I smelled the odor of sweat and semen in the air. I glanced on the ground and saw fresh blood coming from between the Glaceon's legs and that is when I knew that I was correct about what had occurred here. At that moment, I got a feeling of disgust and sadness in the pit of my stomach. I felt sorry for what had happened to the Glaceon and mad at myself for not getting there in time, but at the same time, it sickened me to know that one Pokemon could do such a thing to another of its own kind. I closed my eyes as if I could not take in what had just happened. I then got up and turned around to see if the Pokemon who had done this was still nearby and as I glanced backwards I saw a male Absol disappear into some shrubs.

Knowing I could not catch up to it and that there was nothing else I could do for the Glaceon, I called into base on my walkie-talkie and requested that someone else retrieve the Aron. I explained what had happened and was given permission to return to base with the Glaceon.

As I walked back to base I was still haunted by images of what had happened a few moments ago.

When I returned to base I was immediately greeted by a nurse who requested to run some tests in order to determine whether or not the Glaceon was pregnant. I obediently handed the Pokemon over and hoped for the best. I waited in the waiting room patiently awaiting the results. After about 20 minutes I was relieved to hear that the Glaceon was not carrying a child. The nurse explained that the Pokemon just needed a few days of rest in order to recover.

"She'll be fine" The nurse said with a reassuring tone.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Positive" she answered.

"Okay, if you say so" I said leaving the room, but deep inside I knew that she would never recover emotionally from this experience.

Over the next week, I visited Glaceon often and over that time, we somewhat developed a bond and once she was allowed to leave, happily joined me on many of my missions. I named her Sierra.

_~End of Flashback~_

But there was no time for memories now; I still had a mission to complete and it was growing late, I would have to hurry.

By now I had nearly reached the top of the cliff and now felt relieved thinking that my journey had come to an end and that I could finally retrieve the Evee that I had accepted to save and return to base. However, as I climbed over the edge, my feeling of relief quickly faded away when I saw that I was nowhere near the peak of the mountain.

My mission was to get to the peak of Mt. Glacier and rescue an Evee that had fainted near the top. The informers who gave us this information said that they were flying by in a helicopter, coming back from a skiing trip and explained that they saw something lying in the snow. After closer inspection they identified the creature as an Evee and started to lower themselves to its position. Unfortunately, the strong winds were slowly building and they thought it dangerous to be flying in such rough weather, so they aborted and flew off, leaving that unfortunate Evee's life in my hands.

But now, as it got later and the temperatures grew colder, this task was becoming harder and harder to complete.

Ahead of me lied another treacherous cliff and even stronger winds than before. The blizzard was getting worse and I still had no place to rest, no place to warm up, no place to take cover from the raging storm.

I thought I was going to die, it was a strain just to take a single step and I was using all my strength to push forward to my objective, trying to stay alive. I didn't give up though, I kept moving on, traveling to my destination on what seemed like an endless quest.

It was useless though; I had been traveling for hours and I couldn't fight the cold any longer. I stumbled and fell into the snow, my body completely frozen, I was now crawling, trying to get back up, trying to continue and complete my mission.

But it was no use; I collapsed from exhaustion and the freezing cold weather. The storm had won.

**So, did you like the first chapter? Sorry if it was a bit depressing, but things will get better and for those of you who think the flashback was unnecessary, I will tell you that it DOES play an important role later in the story.**

**I am expecting the next chapter to be done within a week or two.**

**Please post reviews and tell me what you think.**

**Also, check my page for updates and progress on the next chapter.**


	2. Rescued

**A/N: After all this time I have finally finished the second chapter of my fanfic and I will once again say that I am sorry for the long wait, but what can I say, I'm a busy person (That, and I was having quite a few problems with my computer).**

**I hope you enjoy Chapter 2 of "A Shadow Cast Upon Snow", especially after all the hard work I put into it and I will say, I do believe it is slightly longer than the first chapter (By maybe a sentence or two).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. I do however own this story.**

_Third-Person POV:_

As Daniel's body lied motionless deep within the snow, the only sound heard was the whistling of the strong winds as they steadily grew more violent. The worst of the snowstorm was now approaching and Daniel was currently incapable of finding refuge.

Daniel's chances of survival were now very slim and as the night went on, he was covered under a white blanket of snow, making the possibilities of someone finding him even less. However, his luck hadn't run out quite yet.

In the distance there stood a small, unknown figure, which was slowly approaching Daniel's location. When it neared him, at first it seemed as though it would just walk by without even noticing the body, but after passing him, it looked back a few moments later, almost as though it was watching out for something and in doing so, it noticed something lying in the snow. It was Daniel's wallet.

Being the curious type, it opened it up and looked through it, gazing at the items within.

There wasn't much inside. Just an identification card, a driver's license, a key card and a bit of money concealed in a pocket that opened along the top of the wallet.

As the figure rummaged through the contents of the wallet, it noticed that all of the cards were similar. Printed on each and every one of them was a boy with shaggy hair and dark blue eyes who presented the same cheery smile in each of the pictures taken of him.

The boy was Daniel and as the figure examined the picture, it glanced up, probably wondering if the person was still nearby. The figure looked over the snow-covered terrain searching for signs of Daniels whereabouts and after studying the land for a few moments; something caught the attention of the curious figure an object protruding from the snow and walked over for closer examination.

It was a black boot, and the figure, thinking it belonged to someone, tried to pull it out of the snow, but stopped when it noticed that it was still attached to something. It dug away the snow and found that the boot was attached to the boy in the pictures.

The creature wondered what had happened to him and knew that he would not survive long outside in the cold weather, so it slowly dragged Daniel's body away with his wallet still in the other hand. The figure soon vanished in the falling snow, pulling Daniel to an unknown destination.

_Daniel's POV:_

When I awoke what seemed like several hours later, I found that I was no longer on the Cliffside of that deadly mountain, but instead inside a dark, dank cave with an excruciating headache. I wondered how I had ended up in such a place and decided to look for clues in order to find out exactly what had happened.

The first thing I noticed was that someone had lied an old, tethered blanket across my torso, which led me to believe that I had been rescued by another squad of Rangers, but there were many problems with that theory. If I had in fact been saved by another squad they probably would have brought me strait back to headquarters unless they themselves became lost, which is highly improbable considering each Ranger is equipped with a GPS, a compass and a map of the region.

I simply lost my map to the strong winds during the journey to the peak, my compass had cracked while climbing the steep cliffs and my GPS shorted out almost immediately after the storm brewed. I don't know how things could have gotten any worse. Then it occurred to me that even if others at HQ had known what had happened to me, they were forbidden to leave the base in such weather conditions and wouldn't even know my location.

How I came to be here puzzled me and as I stood up from where I had been laying I continued to try to put together what had happened, still bearing the painful headache, which thankfully seemed to be wearing off.

"Perhaps the ground on which I fainted collapsed beneath me" I thought. No, that was a stupid idea. If the ground above me had broken there would have been a gaping hole in the ceiling above and rubble beneath me, I probably would have had quite a few injuries as well if that was the case. However, there were absolutely no signs of a cave-in above and the only thing below my feet was solid ground, but there were no piles of debris or snow anywhere, which meant that there was no way that destruction had occurred here and even so, a cave-in still didn't explain the blanket.

But as I looked down, that is when I noticed it. There was a fairly long groove of dirt about the width of my body, leading from the entrance to this room of the cave, to where I was lying under that torn blanket a few moments ago and next to the groove were imprints which appeared to be made by feet.

That explained it, I had been dragged here, but by what?

The footprints didn't appear to be that of a human. They were much to small and presented no toes instead of five.

Then it came to me, "It was probably a Pokemon that brought me here" I thought, but why?

Why go out of the way to save my life?

Next it occurred to me that after all this time Sierra was still in her Pokeball. What time was it anyway?

How long had I been out for?

I guess that didn't matter now, but I knew that I should probably release Sierra, it was about time she got some fresh air, even though the oxygen in this cave was thin and cold, making it hard to breathe.

I threw the Pokeball to the floor, which released first, a bright flash of light and then, my Glaceon, Sierra, who was stretching her muscles after that long time in the Pokeball. She then looked around out of curiosity, probably wondering where she was.

I allowed her to rest for a while, as I needed a break as well. A bit later I noticed a large opening in the wall on the far side of the room and decided to take a walk down the passage, beckoning Sierra to follow. She obeyed and followed me down the tunnel, still taking in her surroundings.

All the while I had been wondering where my savior had wandered off to and whether or not I would ever meet him/her.

However, I also had no knowledge of what lurked in these desolate caves and decided to stay on guard while traveling through the on-going underpasses. There were so many intersections and turns throughout the vast mass of passageways that the caves almost seemed like an underground maze.

After traveling for a while with Sierra at my side, we eventually came to a dead end which appeared to have once been a passage but was now just a wall of rocks and boulders that had probably collapsed a while back. There was no way of getting through, so I decided that we should turn back and take another route.

Just then though, I heard a faint noise, which after listening, sounded like footsteps. I realized that something was approaching our position and signaled Sierra to stay on high alert since I did not know whether or not if what was approaching us was a friend or a foe.

Steadily, the sound of footsteps became louder and soon enough, a shadow was cast upon the wall before us. It was only barely noticeable through the dim light but seemed to be large. Slowly, as the creature approached us, the shadow shrunk down to the figure's true size, which was pretty small actually.

Then I saw it as it walked around the corner. It was indeed small, a male Snover, only a bit older than Sierra at best and probably not much stronger either.

However, it could have still posed as a threat, so I told my Glaceon to ready herself in case of a possible attack, but found that she did not have to when the Snover first paused for a few moments while looking at us and then did nothing more then wave to me.

"What?" I thought to myself.

I was dumbfounded. Did I know this Pokemon from somewhere?

Who was he?

Then it hit me. "This must be the Pokemon that had saved my life." I realized.

**Well, there you go, Daniel is okay, but what about the mission? Will he finish in time, or will that poor Evee freeze to death? Find out more in the next chapter.**

**That's two chapters down and about 30-40 more to go. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun writing this story and seeing how everything plays out.**

**Something I would like to say though is that I've noticed that quite a few people have been reading my story but I've only gotten 1 review so far. Please, if you read the story remember to respond as well. It gives me motivation when people respond and helps me get the next chapter done quicker.**

**Again, I am sorry it took so long to finish this chapter and please remember to check my page for updates.**


	3. Hospitality

**A/N: Sorry for the extremely long wait but nevertheless I still gave this chapter my best shot just the same and I hope you enjoy it.**

**Here it is, Chapter 3 of the long forgotten "A Shadow Cast Upon Snow" I intentionally made it a bit longer than the previous chapters. (Thought you guys deserved something a little bit more after the wait.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I do however own this story.**

_Daniel's POV:_

The Snover before me seemed quite timid and was obviously friendly enough, so I tried conversing with him asking how it was that he found me amongst the snow of the storm.

I used my Poké-Translate device to get a rough translation of what he was trying to say and from the way he explained it I came to find that he simply found me lying unconscious in the snow whilst running from "something" along the ridge of the mountain. However before he came up with the word "something" as he put it, he stuttered a bit, leading me to believe that for some reason he wasn't telling the entire story of how he came to find me, or that for some reason he didn't want to tell me what that something was, as he obviously knew himself.

At the time however, it seemed like there were just too many things left unanswered, so I dropped the subject entirely and continued on by asking him where exactly we were.

He seemed quick to answer that question and explained that it was originally just a small cave not far from where I had passed out, but proudly explained that he himself had dug out the mass complex of tunnels, or "burrows" as he called them, that we were in now and further explained that there was a small "outpost" farther down the line. His pride and the way he described things showed me that he was somewhat childish in nature and all the more harmless.

He then in an excited tone of voice, told us that we would be much safer down the line. Obviously eager to show us this outpost of his he rushed ahead vanishing in the darkness down the burrow ahead.

I chuckled and so did Sierra as the Snover was simply too precious. I beckoned to her once again to follow me, but stumbled and held my right leg writhing in pain, then looked at my torn up right hand realizing I was in no better shape than before. Sierra looked concerned but I reassured her with a grin and told her that we'd better catch up before we lost the little guy. She nodded and we continued down the dark passage ahead.

We walked only for a bit in darkness before seeing a light ahead around a corner and Identifying the source as a dimly lit old fashioned lantern hung on the wall, nearly out of oil. Ahead we saw only more of the same lanterns and at the end of the tunnel the joyful Snover who had ran ahead.

The Snover beckoned to us to hurry up and excitedly entered the room ahead.

I continued down the passage to the room ahead and entering, took in the surroundings as I did in the cave before. The room had a makeshift setup but was quite a bit more decorated than the cave, immediately leading me to believe that this was the place the Snover called his outpost. I saw a few crates filled with food (mostly berries) some full, some empty. I also saw in the corner what seemed to be a bed suitable for a Snover and a bit of scrap metal doodads, what he used those for I did not know. In the middle of the room there was a table with four chairs and some more scrap lying on top of the table, it seemed like the Snover had tried to build something. Other than that, the room was just cluttered with all sorts of other junk.

Snover tapped me on the arm and I turned to face him. He held out my wallet and I reached into my pocket now noticing that it wasn't on me the entire time. I took it from his hand and thanked him then turned to look at the room before me once more.

"Well this is it, the place I call home. Watta ya think? " Snover exclaimed, seeing as I had analyzed the room.

"It's decent" I said, "A little messy, but still nice."

"Well it ain't exactly easy to furnish a cave ya know." Replied the Snover.

"I realize that" I said, laughing a bit. "So what's with all the junk and scrap" I asked, honestly wondering what it was that he could be using it for.

"I tinker a bit in my spare time, usually when it's storming outside like it is right now." He answered.

"So what was it you were doing outside before when you found me then, shouldn't you have been here knowing that bad weather was to come?" I asked.

He got quiet, obviously still not wanting to tell the full story and explain who or what that "something" was that was chasing him through the storm, so I changed the subject.

"So… you build things?" I asked.

"Not build, just fix" He explained.

"How would you know how to fix the things that are broken?" I asked him.

"I find things" I interrupted him "Things?"

"Yeah lost things, all kinds of gadgets. When I find 'em I bring them back here, take the appliances apart, and see if I can put 'em back together afterwards. It gives me a feeling of how they work and by then I can fix them if I see something's wrong."

"That's pretty smart of you, quite a talent if you ask me"

"Thank you, I've gotten quite good at it" He said smiling with glee, once again bringing out his childish nature.

"So what was it you were doing outside before" He said, now asking me.

At that point I realized I had almost entirely forgotten why I had come to the mountain in the first place. I was so caught up in figuring out who had saved me before that I had nearly forgot about the Evee who was still stranded at the peak of the mountain.

"I'm sorry Snover but I need to leave now, I'm in a bit of a hurry"

"Wait what, why? What's this all about?" Asked Snover.

"I don't have much time I need to go, please show me to the entrance and I'll try to explain on the way"

Snover nodded and cooperated quite well, leading me and Sierra back through the passages and showing me to the entrance. By the time we got there I had explained to him the entire situation, he seemed quite interested in the matter.

"So that's it? You're here to rescue that Evee?" He asked as we reached the entrance.

"Basically. And things were going quite well till that storm brewed" I said, holding my head, remembering the pain I endured.

"So that's why you're so eager to leave? I have to say I was wondering what you were doing up here on the mountain during a storm like that. I thought you might've just not made it down in time, turns out you were climbing up the mountain."

"Yeah and that's why I have to leave on such short notice. Thanks for the rescue and the hospitality. I might not have made it this far without you, but I really have to go, and it seems like the storms finally cleared up." I said looking out the cave entrance into the starlit night sky.

"Come on Sierra let's get going" I said exiting the cave onto the snowy ridge of the mountain.

Sierra and I waved goodbye one last time before walking out onto the slope to the right. The Snover just stared out into the sky as we walked away. We made it only a few steps up the slope before we heard the Snover call out once again.

"Wait!" He said running out to the bottom of the slope.

We turned to face him once again looking down at him as he talked.

"I'm coming with you guys." he shouted eager to join us as we continued.

I thought about letting him come along but had to face the fact the he was obviously overlooking the danger that lied ahead. The Snover was young, as was Sierra, but unlike her he was probably not prepared to fight judging by his timid nature. I was also unsure of how well he could navigate the land, if he were to have any trouble keeping up, he would only slow us down and time was now of the essence as it had been a day now since the sighting of the Evee and I was already beginning to doubt its survival through the storm. I tried telling him to stay behind for his own good as I couldn't bear to see him get hurt.

But he was persistent and intended on going with us no matter what the danger, so in the end I agreed to let him come along and figured Sierra and I could protect him if we ran into any trouble.

As soon as I agreed to let him come along he excitedly ran back into the cave to grab supplies assuring us that he'd be back quickly. He took only a few minutes and returned with a small pack filled with some berries and blankets.

He actually proved to be useful and was able to fix my GPS making for easier travel up the mountain and by then I had gotten used to traveling with the little guy. His Childish nature all in all actually made the situation seem less dire than it was, but really to say that is just mere ignorance nothing more. In actuality time was running short and I was quite honestly not sure if we would make it in time at this point.

I'm pretty certain that after a while Sierra took a liking to him as well, but I'm sure he also came off as annoying to her as well since I constantly caught her not listening to his childish ranting of life in the mountains.

Of course though, through it all, none of us could have expected the troubles we'd face soon enough. Unfortunately, Snover's life wasn't as simple and happy as he made it out to be. He had just like Sierra, faced hardships in the past and soon enough, that "something" would come back to haunt us. At the time though we couldn't have known this. All we saw ahead at the moment was daybreak, the sunrise as we peered over the top of yet another cliff on the mountain.

**Well, it's been a while, what am I saying? More than just a while, but all in all I think I did okay. I tried my best to convey Snover's personality and shape him a bit in this chapter, but you won't know his full story till later on, so I'll try to continue as quickly as I can from now on.**

**Please posts reviews as always and tell me what you think and I'll try my best to take what you think into account in regards of the story.**

**Thanks a lot to all who commented I'll try to get the next chapter up before December as well.**


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